


Up On The Housetop (Memories Are Made)

by PennamePersona



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M, Family, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Introspection, Rooftops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 08:40:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13143021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PennamePersona/pseuds/PennamePersona
Summary: “Are you sure this is a good idea, brother?” Al asks, even though it’s really already too late for them to go back.“Of course,” Ed says. “I’m a father now, and that means I have good senses.”Al stops dead in his tracks.“No,” He says incredulously. “It does not.”





	Up On The Housetop (Memories Are Made)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bergamots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bergamots/gifts).



> Happy Holidays to everyone, but specifically to @tsaritsa on tumblr! I hope you like your gift!

 

“Are you sure this is a good idea, brother?” Al asks, even though it’s really already too late for them to go back.

 

“Of course,” Ed says. “I’m a father now, and that means I have good senses.”

 

Al stops dead in his tracks.

 

“No,” He says incredulously. “It does not.”

 

Ed pauses for a moment, turning back towards Al. “Why not?”

 

“Think about the fathers we’ve met.” Al says. “They almost all were the worst people we’d encountered, or at least more foolish than their wives. You definitely fall into the latter category, no doubts there, but really, Ed? The most deadly enemy we faced called himself Father. Do you not have an irony detector in that thick head?”

 

“Wow,” Ed says. “I’m your older brother, and you should show me respect.”

 

“Or,” Al replies. “I could do like I’ve always done and call you out on your shit.”

 

Ed seems to weigh his options for a few moments, debating between losing his cool (something he actually does less, now that he’s had the time to peacefully mature in that sense) or let this roll off his back and not blow their cover.

 

He opens his mouth, ready with his retaliation, when he’s interrupted by a small voice calling out from a point high above them.

 

“Papa? Uncle Al? What are you doing down there?”

 

Ed and Al freeze, slowly turning their heads up towards the roof of the house they’d been sneaking up on. There is a small shape on the roof, just the right size to be a young child waiting up to see if the scary stories his father had told him were true.

 

Edward and Alphonse Elric, saviors of not only the entirety of Amestris but most probably the entire world, shriek in utter terror.

 

“What are you doing up there?!” Ed cries, running towards the house and immediately attempting to climb the sides of the walls, with moderate success.

 

Al crouches and transmutes the snow beneath their feet into a hand which catapults him upward, to the audible delight of the child on the roof.

 

“I’m looking for the monster Papa said comes for little kids who don’t stay in bed,” He says to Al, as soon as his uncle lands on the roof next to him. “I didn’t think it was true, or else you and Papa would’ve gotten eaten when you were little.”

 

Ed huffs out a laugh as he clambors onto the roof.

 

“True enough, little man,” Ed says. “Now, let’s get you off the roof and back inside before the noise wakes up your mother.”

 

“Mommy’s working in her workshop.” Ed’s son says matter-of-factly, and Ed pales visibly, even in the washed-out moonlight.

 

“Edward Elric!” Winry shouts out her workshop window. “Why are you on the roof making all that noise? You’re going to wake up - ”

 

“Don’t worry, Mommy! I’m already awake!” 

 

“Well, shit.” Al mutters in the pause that comes before Winry screams, “Why is our son on the roof with you?!”

 

“Al and I were trying to teach him to stay in bed by being the monster from the story!” Ed shouts back, as though this is an answer that will satisfy his wife.

 

“Al’s up there too?!” Winry cries, accompanied by the sound of her making her way out of the workshop window and onto the roof, as well.

 

“No,” Al groans. “Al’s not here because he was smart enough to listen to the little voice in his head that told him this was a dumb idea.”

 

Ed just laughs.

 

“Should’ve listened, Al,” He says, fully knowledgeable of the loving beating he’ll get as soon as Winry stumbles her way onto the roof. 

 

“But if I had,” Al muses. “I wouldn’t have had this lovely moment of family bonding.”

 

Winry finishes climbing onto the roof at that moment, huffing and laughing, just as her husband had.

 

“Mommy,” Her son says. “I’m tired. Can I go back to bed?”

 

Winry, Ed, and Al all exchange a reminiscing look for their shared childhood, and laugh.

 

“Of course, sweetheart,” Winry says, scooping him up and making her way to the edge of the roof with a care that suggests that she does this more frequently than one might at first assume. “You should’ve been in bed this whole time.”

 

“I wanted to see the monster, though,” Her son yawns, and she chuckles.

 

“I know, baby,” She says. “I know.”

 

Later, when all young members of the Rockbell-Elric household are tucked into bed, and older members (plus Al) are drinking warm tea and laughing over the incident, sharing “Do you remember when?” stories about the times Ed and Al (and sometimes Winry, on rarer occasions) did similar things, a peace settles over each of them.

 

Though someday Edward and Winry’s son will grow to have his own family, and that family will stretch on and on until no one in Risembool will look at one of those children and think of the striking resemblance they have to Winry Rockbell and Edward Elric, these memories will live on in stories told to children, not of monsters to devour them if they don’t stay in bed, but of the love people can share that goes beyond any simple definition.

 

Years and years down the line, people of Amestris will still look at each other and say, “How could anyone forget the Elrics?” and, though she never did change her last name, Winry will be included in that, too.

 

This night, here, this night of sneaking and screaming and cold and love, is proof of it already. 

 

“Edward,” Winry sighs as she makes her way to their bed. “Don’t stay up too much later.”

 

“Love you too,” He says, absently, scratching down his ideas on papers shared between himself and Al, about something sparked in the conversation about their childhood.

 

Winry smiles, walks away, and never considers how her life might have been without the Elric brothers.

 

Ed falls asleep at the table, mid-sentence, never having thought in his life that he would arrive somewhere so wonderful and be so loved, while at the same time never doubting it.

 

Al looks out the window of what may as well have been his second childhood home, and thinks of how astronomically and extraordinarily lucky he and his brother have been, to have Winry and this wonderful combination of Winry and his brother in their lives, this nephew he loves beyond words, not even mentioning all the others.

 

The Golden Trio, the Risembool Three, the saviors of themselves, of Amestris, of one little boy’s whole world, sleep well that night. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Love comments and kudos! Happy Holidays again!
> 
> [my tumblr](http://www.pennamepersona.tumblr.com)


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